Joshua and Lucina (Harmon) Mecham followed the Latter-day Saints from Springfield to Kirtland, OH in the early 1830s. They probably left Kirtland with the group called Kirtland Camp about 1838 and stayed over at Springfield, Illinois with the sick and inform. Joshua's parents (the Mechams) and several of Lucina's brothers (the Harmons) also stopped at Springfield, Illinois to recover from illness and find work in order to earn money to join the Saints at a later date. Joshua was one of those who were sick and he passed away on 8 Mar 1840. Elizabeth Lucina was just four years old when her father died. The Harmon family was a very close-knit family as were the Mechams. They saw to it that Lucina and her children were able to travel to Nauvoo, Hancock, Illinois with them. They were there by 1842. In 1844, Elizabeth Lucina Mecham's mother (Elizabeth Lucina Harmon) married her father's (Joshua Mecham) brother, Joseph Mecham. However, on 5 Oct 1845, Lucina Harmon died leaving her little daughter (Lucina Mecham) an orphan at the age of 9 years. Also in 1845, Joseph Mecham passed away. It is unknown who cared for this motherless little girl (Elizabeth Lucina Mecham), who on June 4, 1857 married George Bryant Gardner, she was the mother of Albert Clifton Gardner and grand mother of Kate Elizabeth Gardner.